This invention pertains to a cable manufacture and particularly to a cable assembly and its cooperation and combination with an awning""s roller tube.
The prior art discloses fabric straps which pull down awnings along with their customary spring-biased actuated roller tube assemblies mounted to support arms pivotally mounted to window frames on a side of a vehicle such as a mobile home or RV vehicle. The fabric straps break, deteriorate, and rot over a period of time, say, in sun and rain belts of the country than otherwise. Also, these straps include staying elements by which straps and tube remain assembled together for operation. These staying elements require an additional separable element, a stem projecting to each side of a stitched end loop across the width of each strap by which it stays assembled to its roller tube via installation behind slots in the roller tubes. This invention obviates these disadvantages associated with conventional present-day mobile and recreational vehicles [RV""s] awning straps currently in use. In addition, repetitious labor in and costs of replacing worn-out fabric straps that have become non-functional continue to increase as the spiral of inflation continues its merry way. This invention removes these detrimental incidents of labor, costs, and maintenance by the long-lasting life of the materials of the manufactures of this invention and the ease by which they are readily installed to and combined with roller tubes in their assembly to their awning apparata.
The invention is found in a cable manufacture fabricated from a flexible stainless metal cable, having a self-incorporated loop formed at its one end for connection to a support or clete on a side panel of a vehicle for maintaining an open mode for its window awning. One or more stops or staying elements, of hard material, such as metal, of sufficient size are secured intermittently along the cable""s finite length and in proximity to the other or free end of the cable""s length for retention or seating on the interior wall of a hollow roller tube at a body formation for a slot (of a lesser width than the size of the stops) in the roller tube to which the cable manufacture is assembled. The self-incorporated loop is formed by folding or turning back upon itself the cable to thereby abut a point along its length adjacent its one end and crimping together these abutting points to form a fixed and closed loop. The stops, such as bored metal balls, are intermittently mounted and secured, such as by crimping, farther from the loop along the length of the cable manufacture, with each spaced one at its crimped point determining the desired extent of an open mode for an awning that is unraveled with the rotation of the roller tube by the pull on the loop in the operation of the invention. Any one of the stops is readily installed or seated against the body formation of the inner wall forming the tube""s slot as a staying element, combining the cable manufacture and roller tube together in a cooperative manner. The slot extends lengthwise substantially fully of the length of the roller tube, sometimes into an end on the tube and sometimes not. However, in either instance, in the operation of this invention, the stop on the cable manufacture is capable of entering the tube""s slot through an aperture in the top of the cap and through an aligned slot formed in the wall of the cap or by drilling a larger hole in the slot itself and through which the stop is introduced to the interior hollowness of the roller tube for seating against the tube""s inner wall about the slot.
An object of this invention is to provide a novel and unique awning cable manufacture.
Another object of this invention is to eliminate the continual replacement of conventional fabric straps that open and close awnings or other assemblies.
A further object of this invention is to provide an efficacious combination of a cable manufacture to a roller tube of an awning assembly.
A further object of this invention is to eliminate rotting and deterioration of pull articles, as in a pull article for an awning assembly.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a simpler awning opening and closing device with less separate and operable elements to it.
Yet a further object of this invention is to provide a substantial reduction in labor, outlay of cost, and maintenance of the subject matter of the invention by its ease of installation and more lasting life than with materials heretofore utilized in the mobile home and RV industries to open and close an awning apparatus.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide for a cable manufacture readily installable to roller tube assemblies manufactured in different manners by different manufacturers of various kinds of mobile homes and RV""s.